Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

on Aug 4, 2014 |

Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! It only seems right to share my most favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with you today! These are very easy and very tasty. I am picky with my cookies (just like my cake textures). My family and I love cookies that have a nice crunchy edge, but are moist and soft in the center. I love reheating these chocolate chip cookies the next day to enjoy the sweet, buttery goodness as if they just came out of the oven again! But honestly, most of the time, they don’t make it to see the next day after they were made.

These are a simple recipe and most people usually have the ingredients on hand. I would like to take a moment and explain to you why I use margarine. It is very important when baking these cookies to use a margarine that has 80% vegetable oil. This makes a huge difference in the cookies texture and how it bakes. Have you ever used butter in a recipe and the cookies come out thin and flat. Or have you used a margarine (whatever was on sale) with out even looking at the percent of vegetable oil and your cookies didn’t bake up the same as the last batch you made? The vegetable oil in margarine allows the cookie to puff up and look fuller. There is a simple explanation, according to Better Homes & Gardens, “The margarine should have 100 calories per tablespoon. Margarines with less than 80 percent vegetable oil have a high water content and can result in tough cookies that spread excessively, stick to the pan, or don’t brown well.” Many years back, I actually had never realized this was the problem with my cookies. I would buy whatever margarine was on sale or cheaper at the store and wonder why my cookies were always inconsistent. But, after actually reading my margarine boxes and making many batches, I finally realized the problems were with my margarine choices. Hope this helps if you are puzzled, like I was!

Now, let’s get baking…

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yields: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup of margarine, softened (2 sticks and MUST be 80% vegetable oil)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup instant vanilla pudding (1 box)

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips ( I use mini)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. With an electric mixer, beat margarine until smooth.

3. Mix in sugars, and pudding.

4. Stir in eggs, one at a time.

5. Mix in vanilla. Then salt and baking soda.

6. On lowest setting mix in flour. Be sure not to over mix the batter because it will also cause gluten to form (just like in cakes) and your cookies will be tough.